SPINACH

Did anybody tell you that spinach are good for you????!!!
Yes?
Does my message arrive too late???
Oh, well! Getting good, healthy advices is never too much!

Spinach has a high nutritional value and is extremely rich in antioxidants,
especially when fresh, steamed, or quickly boiled.
It is a rich source of vitamin A (and especially high in lutein), vitamin C,
vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, folate, betaine, iron, vitamin B2,
calcium, potassium, vitamin B6, folic acid, copper, protein, phosphorus, zinc,
niacin, selenium and omega-3 fatty acids.
Polyglutamyl folate (vitamin B9 or folic acid) is a vital constituent of cells,
and spinach is a good source of folic acid.
(wikipedia says so)

Do you need more to be convinced!!!!???

So, spinach are good for you and they are delicious, too!
Let's use them in a nice recipe!

CROSTATA SPINACH AND RICOTTA

Ingredients for dough:

250g (1 cup and half) bread flour
1 stick of butter (115 g)
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 TBS white wine

On a wooden board mix flour with butter then add salt, egg and wine.
Mix well to obtain a smooth dough.
Put in a bowl, cover with cling paper and let it rest in fridge while
preparing filling.

Ingredients for filling:

250g (half pound) fresh ricotta
1 bunch of fresh spinach
(use only leaves and blanch them, once squeezed you should get almost 2 cups)
1 egg
half tsp nutmeg
half tsp salt
half cup grated parmesan.

Mix all the ingredients well.

With a rolling pin flatten the dough to make a thin pastry.
Cover a round baking tray with the pastry and fill it in with ricotta and
spinach mixture.
With the left over dough cut stripes to put on top of the crostata to form
a grid.
Bake at 400 F (or 200 C) for 40 minutes or till the pastry is golden brown.

Mighty aromatic BASIL

Have you planted your basil yet???
Basil is a mighty herb, easy to grow.
You can place a pot on a sunny windowsill,
and, adding some water and love,
you will be rewarded by sumptuous,
super-aromatic leaves that will add tasty flavor
to all your summer dishes.
Basil’s health benefits are found in its essential oils
that have potent antioxidant, antiviral and antimicrobial
properties.
The best way to use basil is in PESTO.
You can prepare it and keep in the fridge, covered with
olive oil for 3/4 days and use it for different purposes:
to toss it on pasta (Linguini format is advised in this case);
to spread on bruschettas;
to add to your fried chicken breast;
to give flavor to your minestrone;
to use as a dip with vegetable sticks, and so on!!!

PESTO ALLA GENOVESE

Ingredients:
2 cups of fresh, clean basil leaves
½ cup pine nuts
1 cup grated parmesan
1 crushed garlic clove
½ tsp salt
½ cup olive oil

Put in a blender basil leaves and pine nuts and chop them finely.
Add parmesan and salt and little by little the oil.
Mix to obtain a smooth sauce (you might need more oil to get there).
Transfer pesto in a glass container, cover with olive oil and keep it
in the fridge before using.

You can also change recipe, getting a slightly different flavor,
substituting the 2 basil cups with 1 cup of basil and 1 cup of fresh
spinach leaves and the half cup of pine nuts with half cup of walnuts.

LIGHTEN UP YOUR DAY!

To make this gorgeous day even better
I'm going to share with you a delicious,
sweet and yummy recipe!


CROSTATA RICOTTA AND STRAWBERRIES

Ingredients for pastry:

250 gr or 1 cup of flour
115 gr or 1 piece of butter
100 gr or half cup of white sugar
1 egg
1 TBS liquor like Martini

For instructions to prepare crust, check for crostata recipe in my blog.
Transfer rolled dough in a round baking tray and bake it blank covered with parchment paper and beans at 400F (200C) for 10 minutes,
remove beans and bake for other 5 minutes.
Cool it down.

Ingredients for filling:

1pound and half of fresh ricotta

4 egg yolks
1 cup white sugar
lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla essence

Mix ricotta with sugar till creamy then add egg yolks one at the time.
Add lemon zest and vanilla and let it rest in the fridge.

Ingredients dor topping:

1 container of organic strawberries

1 lemon juice

Slice finely strawberries and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Preaparation:

Fill the crust with ricotta mixture and bake at 350F (or 180 C) for 20 minutes
or till lightly brown.
Remove from oven and cool it down.
When cold, cover it with strawberries and top with lots of confectionary sugar.

ENJOY IT!!!

LET'S TALK HEALTHY FOOD

Few years ago, while attending a course at the Academy of Healing
and Nutrition in Manhattan, I discovered the power of seeweeds!
This food was not in my kitchen yet, but it became a steady presence
in my pantry after then.
Seeweeds are full of trace minerals and vitamins and are very good
to eliminate toxins and radiations from our system.
Today I'm going to give you a recipe to use the seeweed called
HIJIKI, rich in dietary fiber and minerals like iron, magnesium
and calcium.

HIJIKI CAVIAR
(recipe of Melanie Ferreira)

Ingredients:
½ cup dry Hijiki
2 TBS sesame oil
2 TBS soy sauce
2 TBS olive oil
2 shallots (or 1 onion)
1 clove garlic
lemon juice
1 TBS grated ginger
salt
baguette

Soak hijiki in water for 30 minutes.
Remove it from water and sautee’ it in sesame oil for few minutes.
Add water to cover, bring to boil and add soy sauce, cook till
liquids evaporate.
In another pan sautee’ shallots and garlic.
Chop hijiki and season with lemon and ginger juice.
Add shallot and garlic and mix well.
Serve on sliced baguette, top with a dollop of sour cream and
decorate with chives.

The "Pastiera napoletana"

Today is Palm Sunday and I have celebrated it preparing the
"Pastiera napoletana".
Eggs and wheat berries are the key ingredients of this Easter
recipe, because they represent the beginning of life so they
are also symbolic of resurrection.
I started preparing the pastry, that is very similar to the one
I make for the crostata, only difference is: more eggs!
Then I prepared the filling mixing the grains with ricotta and
eggs. Usually it takes a long time because you have to cook the
wheat berries first, but this time I was lucky enough to find
them pre-cooked at an Italian gourmet shop close to my house.
If you leave outside Italy and in an area where there are not
too many Italian products available then you have to prepare
the wheat in this way:
soak overnight 450 grams of dry wheat berries in water , then drain
and cook them covered with water till soft (45 minutes).
Drain excess water and let them boil in 1/2 cup of warm milk for 5
minutes or till milk is absorbed. Cool it down.

Following you will find the full recipe!

PASTIERA NAPOLETANA

Ingredients for pastry
(it's enough for 2 big pies):
3 sticks of unsalted butter (400 gr)
800 gr flour
4 yolks + 2 eggs
2 TBS liquor (Martini)
2 TBS water
peel of 1 lemon

Ingredients for filling:
1 1/2 pound of ricotta (750 gr)
1 tin of pre-cooked wheat
(or 450 gr of dry one to be cooked)
1/4 cup milk
1 cup sugar
peel of 1 lemon
half candied citron (or candied lemon peel)

To prepare pastry, dispose flour on a wooden board, make a hole in the middle,
add sugar, eggs, water, liquor and lemon peel and start mixing taking in little
by little some flour.
Add butter at room temperature and mix with the rest of flour in order to form
an homogeneous dough.
Cut dough in two parts, cover with cling paper and let it rest in fridge for
30 minutes.
To prepare filling, boil cooked grains in milk for 5 minutes (if you have
cooked grains at home you can skip this step). Transfer grains in a bowl and
cool them down.
In another bowl mix ricotta with sugar, egg yolks, lemon peel and candied citron.
Whip egg whites to transform them in soft peaks.
Mix well wheat berries with ricotta mixture, then fold in the egg whites little by
little.
Prepare pastry flattening dough with a rolling pin.
Butter a round baking tin and add in pastry. Fill pastry with half filling, then
on top form a grid with thin dough stripes.

Bake "pastiera" in oven at 375 F (or 200 C) for 1 hour. If top it's not brown yet
leave it for other 15 minutes.

Serve it cold with a sprinkle of powder sugar!